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New Day
Coronavirus Cases Surge as 2020 Race Enters Home Stretch; Trump Campaigns in Arizona as Biden Preps for Final Debate. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired October 19, 2020 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: COVID cases surging to new levels. There are now more than 8 million cases in the U.S.
[06:00:51]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People are getting tired. We're seeing mitigation fatigue right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm extremely worried. You're starting to see spread everywhere.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you vote for Biden, he will surrender your future to the virus. This guy wants to lock down.
DR. JONATHAN LAPOOK, CBS CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: How bad would things have to get for you to advocate a national lockdown?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: They'd have to get really, really bad.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So much is at stake for this nation.
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ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Monday, October 19, 6 a.m. here in New York. Alisyn is off. Erica Hill with me this morning.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
BERMAN: The former FDA commissioner says we are at the beginning of the biggest coronavirus wave yet. One of the most esteemed epidemiologists in the country says the next 6 to 12 weeks will be the darkest of the entire pandemic. Moments ago, Johns Hopkins reported the world passed 40 million confirmed cases. Forty million. That is where we are.
Overnight, Dr. Anthony Fauci said definitively, we are not on the road to getting out of this.
The United States is now averaging more than 56,000 new cases a day. That's up more than 60 percent since mid-September. Cases are spiking in 27 states. Just look at that map, all the red.
Some of these states are exactly the places where President Trump is holding huge mass gatherings. No social distancing, few masks. These are the exact kinds of events the coronavirus task force is warning against.
In a new interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci says that, given events like that, he's not surprised that President Trump got coronavirus.
HILL: This morning, President Trump is fighting for his political life as concern grows within the campaign and within the Republican Party that the president's focus is on the rearview mirror, specifically his 2016 playbook. Conspiracy theories, attacks on political opponents, rather than focusing on a pandemic strategy and a plan to expand his support in the final push.
He continues to demonize Michigan's governor, who of course, was the target of a kidnapping plot. Both his daughter-in-law and campaign adviser, likens the president -- just having fun at his rallies.
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign taking nothing for granted, warning its supporters not to become complacent.
And this weekend, more long lines in early voting states. More than 27 million ballots have now been cast. That is nearly 20 percent of the total ballots cast in 2016.
Let's begin our coverage this morning with CNN's Adrienne Broaddus, who's live in Chicago. Adrienne, good morning.
ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Erica and John.
The U.S. now has more than 8.1 million coronavirus cases. In the last week, at least 27 states reported an increase in new cases. This as health experts warn our darkest days could be right around the corner.
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BROADDUS (voice-over): The nationwide coronavirus surge is continuing, the country averaging more than 56,000 new cases day over the past week. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar attributing the recent surge to complacency.
ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We're getting colder weather, and we're losing that natural social distancing that happens from being out of doors. And people are getting tired. The American people have given so much. We're seeing mitigation fatigue right now. BROADDUS: The Midwest struggling to contain the spread. Wisconsin
seeing record hospitalizations this weekend and a positivity rate at nearly 25 percent. Despite having one of the lowest positivity rates in the Midwest, Illinois has seen an uptick in new cases and hospitalizations in recent days.
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): It is dangerous right now. We want people to wear masks. We want people to socially distance. We need to make sure that we have certain mitigations in place. And of course, we've already opened up much of our economy, but we have to maintain certain capacity limits and make sure that our people are safe and healthy.
BROADDUS: Even though the country has seen a sharp rise in new cases this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci is not advocating for the country to shut down completely.
FAUCI: They'd have to get really, really bad. First of all, the country is fatigued with restrictions. So we want to use public health measures, not to get in the way of opening the economy, but to being a safe gateway to opening the economy.
[06:05:08]
BROADDUS: Concerns also growing again in the southwest. In New Mexico, hospitalizations have more than doubled since the beginning of the month.
GOV. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM (D-NM): We're not succeeding at combatting the virus. The virus is now winning.
BROADDUS: The governor issuing new restrictions, limiting gatherings to five people and requiring establishments that serve alcohol to have close by 10 p.m.
This as President Trump travels to Arizona today to hold two rallies. The mayor of Tucson warning the president must abide by the restrictions in the city, including mask wearing and social distancing. Trump's rallygoers have frequently not worn masks and have not socially distanced.
FAUCI: See, I think that's less an anti-science and it's more a statement.
LAPOOK: What kind of a statement?
FAUCI: You know, a statement of strength, like, we're strong, we don't need a -- we don't need a mask, that kind of thing.
LAPOOK: Does that --
FAUCI: He sometimes equates wearing a mask with weakness.
LAPOOK: Does that make sense to you?
FAUCI: No, it doesn't, of course not.
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BROADDUS: In that same interview, Dr. Fauci said he wasn't surprised President Trump contracted COVID-19. He said he saw the Amy Coney Barrett event at the Rose Garden and thought nothing good could come from it. As it turned out, it was a super-spreader event -- Erica.
HILL: All right. Adrienne Broaddus live for us in Chicago, thank you.
Meantime, a critical week ahead in the final stretch of the 2020 race, with President Trump and Joe Biden both hitting key battleground states before facing off in the final presidential debate Thursday night.
CNN's Boris Sanchez is live at the White House this morning with more. Boris, good morning.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.
Yes, we're entering the final stretch of the 2020 campaign, and the contrast between these two candidates in their messaging and their strategy could not be more stark.
Former Vice President Joe Biden casting as wide a net as he can, trying to appeal to a broad span of the electorate, with the message that he is a healer, that he will help the nation unify after a very divisive four years of President Trump. Here's some of what Joe Biden told supporters at an event in North Carolina this weekend. Listen.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I'm running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president. No red states, no blue states, just the United States!
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SANCHEZ: Meantime, President Trump returning to that bombast that we saw catapult him to the White House back in 2016. He's almost exclusively focused on drawing enthusiasm and support from people already in his camp.
The president, though, facing some infighting within the Republican Party, responding to criticism from Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse that the president kisses up to dictators and a number of other things Sasse said on a call with constituents. The president responding to that this weekend with some criticism.
Also criticizing Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. She was, of course, the target of a foiled kidnapping plot by a right-wing militia. The president seeming to revel in his supporters, chanting that she should be locked up while at a campaign event in Michigan. Watch this.
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TRUMP: You've got to get your governor to open up your state and get your schools open. Get your schools open. The schools have to be open, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!
TRUMP: Lock her -- lock 'em all up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: As far as the broad picture of the race goes, the Biden campaign is enjoying a decent lead, both nationally and in key swing states.
Despite that, they're not taking their foot off the gas pedal, John. The campaign manager for the Biden campaign putting out a memo to supporters, saying that they cannot become complacent. Clearly, the trauma of the upset in 2016 still resonating with Democrats.
BERMAN: All right. Boris Sanchez at the White House this morning. Boris, keep us posted throughout the morning.
Developing this morning, a federal judge has blocked a plan by the Trump administration to slash Food Stamps to almost 7,000 unemployed Americans.
In a scathing opinion, the judge said the Agriculture Department was being, quote, "icily silent" about how many people would be hurt by its plan to increase work requirements for Food Stamps in distressed economic areas. The Agriculture Department had no immediate comment.
So the next six to 12 weeks could be the darkest yet in the pandemic. That warning from one of the country's leading epidemiologists. What public health experts are seeing this morning that has them so concerned. That's next.
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BERMAN: You heard the warning from leading scientists. We are entering the darkest period yet in this pandemic. The U.S. is now averaging more than 56,000 new cases a day. That's up more than 60 percent since mid-September. You can see the curve there.
Cases rising in 27 states. Interestingly on this map, there are only two states in the green. Only two states moving in the right direction. All the states in orange and red decidedly moving the wrong way.
Joining us now, CNN political commentator, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. He's an epidemiologist and a public health expert.
Dr. El-Sayed, it's always a pleasure to have you here, although I have to say, this morning, it is a somewhat dark morning, at least according to Michael Osterholm in Minnesota, at least according to Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner. They both say we are heading into the worst of this. Why?
DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, unfortunately, I have to agree with them. This is a really harrowing time, because we are headed into potentially the worst surge of this virus that we have seen yet. And there's a couple of reasons why.
No. 1, it's the fall. I can look outside, and I can tell you that there's frost on the ground. It's getting colder. People are moving indoors. And of course, we know that indoors is a lot less safe than outdoors.
[06:15:11]
And you know, we've got the holiday season coming up. People come together. And all of that together increases the risk of transmission of this virus.
But then, there's also the fact that, rather than in the spring, when you had a couple of hot spots, where the virus had gone to and started to surge, now the virus has had eight months to go all over the country. And so it's gotten to every nook and cranny.
And as these same behavioral patterns start to drive transmission, we're going to start seeing that everywhere. So it really is a harrowing time. I really am worried.
And people need to be on guard. This is not the time to let back, to maybe take off that mask, to be a little bit more lax. This is the time to really double down.
HILL: And yet, what we're hearing, right, what we heard from Secretary Azar, even a little bit from Dr. Fauci, too. We know that that fatigue is out there. I'm sure we can all see it in our daily lives.
So how do you combat that, at this point, when, as you say, it's not just that we're seeing more spikes in numbers close to what we saw in other months, it's the fact that it is now everywhere and it wasn't back in the spring.
EL-SAYED: That's right. And I want to say two things about that.
No. 1, all of us have to do our part. We know that this surge is coming. We've been talking about it coming for months now. We knew that the fall and winter were going to be the most challenging time when it came to transmission of this virus. So we need to double down.
And I know this is not fun. Nobody likes to social distance. Nobody likes to wear a mask. Nobody likes to forego social activities that they enjoy. And yet, we have to do it, because however bad this is, coronavirus is worse.
But I also want to say something else, right? Because it's not just individuals who are behaving poorly. It's the fact that we have not had a coordinated COVID-19 response in this country for a long time. We haven't had the testing we needed. We have not had the contact tracing we needed. We have not had a messaging -- a a national strategy.
And frankly, we've had a president who's been telling people that masks are bed, and that social distancing is not that important, and traveling around the country to some of the worst hot spots, and bringing people together in rally form in places where they're liable to be spreading after he himself was engaged in a super-spreader event that got himself sick.
So let's not just blame people for, quote unquote, "pandemic fatigue." Let's also realize that this is about what leaders do and say. And this is also about the fact that we haven't had a coordinated respond to deal with the structural realities of this virus.
BERMAN: A huge component of it is absolutely leadership. I mean, how would you fight coronavirus pandemic fatigue? One way would be leadership. One way would be to have a leader who inspires people in the country to do the right thing, which is why it was so interesting to hear Dr. Fauci speak at length on "60 Minutes," on the president's decision to wear a mask. Let's listen to that exchange again, because it's really revealing.
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LAPOOK: He hasn't worn masks consistently.
FAUCI: Yes, but -- but that --
LAPOOK: He's pushed back against things you've said.
FAUCI: Yes. See, I think that's less an anti-science than it's more a statement.
LAPOOK: What kind of a statement?
FAUCI: You know, a statement of strength, like, we're strong, we don't need a -- we don't need a mask. That kind of thing.
LAPOOK: Does that --
FAUCI: He sometimes equates wearing a mask with weakness.
LAPOOK: Does that make sense to you?
FAUCI: No, it doesn't, of course not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Of course not, says Dr. Fauci. Of course not, say most scientists who look at this, which is why, also, it was so notable that Scott Atlas, the "science" adviser to the president. I put "science" in quotation marks, because I'm not sure what science he follows. He's sort of the medical Rasputin in the White House.
Twitter took down a post from Scott Atlas which attacked mask wearing. EL-SAYED: Yes, this is just astounding from the person that the
president seems to listen to most closely.
Scott Atlas has no legitimate background to be opining on a pandemic. He's a radiologist. It would be like hiring a painter to do your roof, because they both work on houses. And yet, he comes with these completely un-based opinions. He sort of seems to delight in being the one in the room who doesn't agree with the consensus.
He doesn't appreciate that this isn't a game. This is real people's lives.
And of course, the president has every political reason to try and listen to this iconoclast of his, because of course, the president has failed to take on this pandemic. And so, you know, if it looks like there's a both sides conversation, someone like Atlas is pushing bunk science to make the argument that Trump has been right all along, this is more pleasing to Trump's narcissism and his ego than it is true to the public health situation that we're in right now.
And so, you're right. This is about leadership. It's not just the failure of the president to protect himself. And the fact that he appeared quite weak as he was walking into a hospital, because he had failed to protect himself. The most protected person in the country.
But it's also the fact that he's failed to protect 219,000 people who have died, millions of people who have lost their livelihoods. This isn't about bravado; this is about public health.
BERMAN: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, thank you, as always, for being with us this morning and thanks for the work you in the hospital. Appreciate it.
[06:20:04]
Two weeks and one day left to vote in this country. And we have new reporting on the next big move planned by each campaign. That's next.
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HILL: A critical week ahead as the 2020 race enters the final stretch. President Trump moving forward with a flurry of large rallies in key battleground states despite the pandemic worsening.
Joe Biden, meantime, focused on preparing for the final debate this week and targeting voters with a new ad blitz.
Joining us now, CNN political commentator Errol Louis. He's the political anchor for Spectrum News. Also with us, CNN political analyst Margaret Talev, politics and White House editor for Axios. Good Monday morning, as we roll into the final two weeks here.
As we look at where we stand, Margaret, the difference in what we're seeing on the campaign calendars this week for President Trump and Joe Biden could not be more different and are yet another reminder that there are two very different worlds we're looking at right now. MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Erica, that's right. And
what we're seeing at this moment is Kamala Harris preparing to try to turn out voters in the key swing state of Florida, particularly African-American voters in Jacksonville, Puerto Rican voters around Orlando.
[06:25:15]
And then President Obama, of course, coming back to try to turn out the vote while Biden does some
Jacksonville, Puerto Rican voters around Orlando and President Obama, of course, coming back to try to turn out the vote while Biden does some debate prep.
And we see President Trump today in the state of Arizona that Democrats think maybe they can flip. And if they can flip, that's a real problem for President Trump.
This debate later this week is really the president's last official moment to turn things around, but it's very late in the race. And it's really unclear whether he can stay with the game plan that the White House has set for him to try to shift that dynamic.
BERMAN: My question is this. We were at 70,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday. We're 15 days, 15 days left for people to vote in this country.
By November 3, the last day to vote, we could be at 85, 90,000 new cases a day, Errol. So how much does anything else really matter? I mean, we talk about where candidates are going, what they're saying. But how much does anything matter if we're going to be northwards of 75, 80, 90,000 cases on election day?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, John. Months ago, if you and I were talking, and I told you that more than 220,000 people would die of the coronavirus pandemic and the president's approval ratings would basically stay unchanged, you'd have said I was crazy. But that's more or less what has happened.
It is a very serious problem. It is the driving force of this campaign. But it's not expressing itself, necessarily, in the polls, including the approval rating.
The folks who are with Donald Trump are with Donald Trump, period. He's done very little to try and persuade others to come to his side. That may prove to be his undoing.
But the reality is, he's got a strong base. He's catered to that base. He has told them a bunch of nonsense in a lot of cases, but it doesn't seem to have changed his opinion about them. Nor has the mass death, the mass unemployment, the other problems that we've seen over the courts of the years.
So he's going to take the hand that he's got. He's going to play it as hard as he can going into the conclusion. It's then up to Joe Biden to try and persuade people that he's got a
different approach. He's got a different direction, that all of this suffering and death has been needless, or that at least there's another strategy that has a better chance of dealing with it. That's the case he's going to make in the debate and in these final two weeks, John.
HILL: You know, it's interesting, too, as we see -- I mean, the president really hasn't changed. Let's just be honest. We all know this. Nothing has changed. He is clearly not listening, as you point out, Margaret, to the plan that his campaign wants him to follow. That is also not new.
But I was struck by this moment, too, when he went after once again the science, not new, but tying Joe Biden to it. Take a listen.
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TRUMP: If you vote for Biden, he will surrender your jobs to China. He will surrender your future to the virus. He's going to lock down. This guy wants to lock down. He'll listen to the scientists.
If I listened totally to the scientists, we would right now have a country that would be in a massive depression instead of -- we're like a rocket ship. Take a look at the numbers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Of course, Margaret, if he had listened to the scientists, maybe there wouldn't be nearly 220,000 people dead in this country and people wondering what the next several months will bring. I'm just curious your reaction to that, especially as we head into this debate?
TALEV: Well, the president is just leaning into his strategy, right? I mean, he's just saying, Hey, yes, OK, I'm not listening to the scientists. I think that's the right course.
And you're right, when you say it that way, it's sort of stunning, but that's -- that's his plan, and he's going with it. And it's -- it's kind of like -- it does give you a little bit of preview, I think, of the argument that he's going to make in the debate.
But it's like saying, Yes, I -- I'm not listening to the scientists, because I don't think they're right. And then we see it in a sort parallel track with Governor Whitmer, where the president has dealt with that sort of -- rather than being like, Oh, yes, we really need to take care of Governor Whitmer, kind of lying, again laying into that and kind of turning the blame on her, right?
And -- and so this is what -- the tactic of blaming the other people I think is about trying to depress the vote on that side, as much as it is about base management.
Because if the president goes back to the 2016 playbook, which is what he's trying to do when he gets the crowds enthused, it's two things. It's turning out his guys, and it's sort of convincing the people who would be supporting Biden, trying to convince them, You don't really need to turn out. Either you don't want to support this guy or, you know, you don't need to. And these are some of the musings when the president talks out loud about what would it be like if he lost to Biden. Part of that messaging, again, is to try to keep the other side from turning out.
So I think you're seeing him do this dual-track approach. It's an effort to replicate the 2016 strategy that ended up working.
BERMAN: We keep talking about this as if it's nine-dimensional chess going on. And I think it's Tic-Tac-Toe. I mean, I don't even think it's checkers. I think this is -- At this point, you have a pandemic where thousands and thousands.
